Word.ws English Dictionary

rough patches

rough patches is the plural of rough patch.

Meaning of rough patch

Noun

rough patch (plural rough patches)

  1. (idiomatic) A difficult or embattling period of one's life.
    • It's in the nature of politics, and certainly the presidency, to go through rough patches – times when, because of a boneheaded mistake, an unforeseen circumstance, a sound but unpopular decision, or a failure to communicate – the headlines turn sour and the public finds you wanting.2020, Barack Obama, chapter 22, in A Promised Land, Crown
  2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see rough, patch.

Questions about rough patches

What is rough patches the plural of?
Rough patches is the plural of rough patch.

Words near rough patches in the dictionary

  1. rough music
  2. rough number
  3. rough numbers
  4. rough out
  5. rough patch
  6. rough patches
  7. rough perfect
  8. rough pump
  9. rough pumps
  10. rough ride
  11. rough rider

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: rough patches (page history and authors); rough patch (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “rough patches.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/rough_patches. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.